Gavin Price

• Ph.D
• Professor (Assistant) at Vanderbilt University

A growing body of evidence suggests that in adults, there is a spatially consistent “inferior temporal numeral area” (ITNA) in the occipitotemporal cortex that appears to preferentially process Arabic digits relative to non-numerical symbols and objects. However, very little is known about why the ITNA is spatially segregated from regions that proc...

The ability to efficiently compare number symbols, such as digits, is associated with mathematics competence across the lifespan. Performance on symbolic number comparison tasks differ across age groups; young students who are developing fluency with digits improve on symbolic number comparison, and performance is better in adults than children. Ho...

Background Childhood adversity is associated with poorer health and lower academic achievement later in life. Poor math skills in particular place individuals at higher risk for physical and mental illness, unemployment, and incarceration, suggesting math achievement may be one explanatory mechanism linking adversity to later functioning. While it...

A critical goal of cognitive neuroscience is to predict behavior from neural structure and function, thereby providing crucial insights into who might benefit from clinical and/or educational interventions. Across development, the strength of functional connectivity among a distributed set of brain regions is associated with children's math skills....

Purpose Diffusion‐weighted imaging allows investigators to identify structural, microstructural, and connectivity‐based differences between subjects, but variability due to session and scanner biases is a challenge. Methods To investigate DWI variability, we present MASiVar, a multisite data set consisting of 319 diffusion scans acquired at 3 T fr...

Numerosity estimation performance (e.g., how accurate, consistent, or proportionally spaced (linear) numerosity-numeral mappings are) has previously been associated with math competence. However, the specific mechanisms that underlie such a relation is unknown. One possible mechanism is the mapping process between numerical sets and symbolic number...

Purpose Diffusion weighted MRI imaging (DWI) is often subject to low signal‐to‐noise ratios (SNRs) and artifacts. Recent work has produced software tools that can correct individual problems, but these tools have not been combined with each other and with quality assurance (QA). A single integrated pipeline is proposed to perform DWI preprocessing...

Purpose Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) allows investigators to identify microstructural differences between subjects, but variability due to session and scanner biases is still a challenge. Methods To investigate DWI variability, we present MASiVar, a multisite dataset consisting of 319 diffusion scans acquired at 3T from b = 1000 to 3000 s/mm ²...

Purpose Diffusion weighted MRI imaging (DWI) is often subject to low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and artifacts. Recent work has produced software tools that can each correct an individual problem, but these tools have not been combined with each other or with quality assurance (QA). Thus, a single integrated pipeline is proposed to perform DWI pr...

Debate continues on whether encoding of symbolic number is grounded in nonsymbolic numerical magnitudes. Nevertheless, fluency of perceiving both number formats, and translating between them, predicts math skills across the life span. Therefore, this study asked if numbers share cortical activation patterns across formats and tasks, and whether neu...

Studies of brain activity during number processing suggest symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical stimuli (e.g., Arabic digits and dot arrays) engage both shared and distinct neural mechanisms. However, the extent to which number format influences large-scale functional network organization is unknown. In this study, using 7 Tesla MRI, we adopted a net...

A region in the posterior inferior temporal gyrus (pITG) is thought to be specialized for processing Arabic numerals, but fMRI studies that compared passive viewing of numerals to other character types (e.g., letters and novel characters) have not found evidence of numeral preference in the pITG. However, recent studies showed that the engagement o...

This study examined impermanent symbol-referent connections (e.g., x = 5) with literal symbols – important symbols for higher-level mathematics that may be difficult to process due to interference from pre-existing associations from literacy. We examined literal symbol processing at the group and individual levels, and executive functioning and sym...

Deficits in numerical magnitude perception characterize the mathematics learning disability developmental dyscalculia (DD), but recent studies suggest the relation stems from inhibitory control demands from incongruent visual cues in the nonsymbolic number comparison task. This study investigated the relation among magnitude perception during diffe...

Research indicates that the neurocognitive system representing nonsymbolic numerical magnitudes is foundational for the development of mathematical competence. However, recent studies found that the most common task used to measure numerical acuity, the nonsymbolic number comparison task, is heavily influenced by non‐numerical visual parameters of...

There is a longstanding debate regarding the extent to which symbolic (e.g. Arabic digits) and nonsymbolic (e.g. dot arrays) numbers engage shared versus distinct neural mechanisms. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have almost exclusively assessed regional activation with only a few evaluating functional connectivity vi...

Recent studies suggest that the relation between nonsymbolic magnitude processing skills and math competence is mediated by symbolic number processing. However, less is known about whether mapping between nonsymbolic and symbolic magnitude representations also mediates that relation, and whether the mediating role of symbolic number processing is e...

The development of math skills is a critical component of early education and a strong indicator of later school and economic success. Recent research utilizing population-normed, standardized measures of math achievement suggest that structural and functional integrity of parietal regions, especially the intraparietal sulcus, are closely related t...

A growing body of research suggests that the processing of nonsymbolic (e.g. sets of dots) and symbolic (e.g. Arabic digits) numerical magnitudes serves as a foundation for the development of math competence. Performance on magnitude comparison tasks is thought to reflect the precision of a shared cognitive representation, as evidence by the presen...

The present study investigates the relation between resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of cytoarchitectonically defined subdivisions of the parietal cortex at the end of 1st grade and arithmetic performance at the end of 2nd grade. Results revealed a dissociable pattern of relations between rsFC and arithmetic competence among subdivision...

This study investigated the relation between symbolic and nonsymbolic magnitude processing abilities with 2 standardized measures of math competence (WRAT Arithmetic and KeyMath Numeration) in 150 3rd- grade children (mean age 9.01 years). Participants compared sets of dots and pairs of Arabic digits with numerosities 1-9 for relative numerical mag...

Study data used for reported analyses. (SAV)

Math relies on mastery and integration of a wide range of simpler numerical processes and concepts. Recent work has identified several numerical competencies that predict variation in math ability. We examined the unique relations between eight basic numerical skills and early arithmetic ability in a large sample (N = 1391) of children across grade...

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a learning disorder affecting the acquisition of school level arithmetic skills present in approximately 3-6% of the population. At the behavioral level DD is characterized by poor retrieval of arithmetic facts from memory, the use of immature calculation procedures and counting strategies, and the atypical represe...

Do individual differences in the brain mechanisms for arithmetic underlie variability in high school mathematical competence? Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we correlated brain responses to single digit calculation with standard scores on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) math subtest in high school seniors. PSAT math sc...

Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) is a learning disorder affecting the ability to acquire school-level arithmetic skills, affecting approximately 3-6% of individuals. Progress in understanding the root causes of DD and how best to treat it have been impeded by lack of widespread research and variation in characterizations of the disorder across studie...

Mathematical skills are of critical importance, both academically and in everyday life. Neuroimaging research has primarily focused on the relationship between mathematical skills and functional brain activity. Comparatively few studies have examined which white matter regions support mathematical abilities. The current study uses diffusion tensor...

The neural foundations of arithmetic learning are not well understood. While behavioral studies have revealed relationships between symbolic number processing and individual differences in children's arithmetic performance, the neurocognitive mechanisms that bind symbolic number processing and arithmetic are unknown. The current fMRI study investig...

The numerical ratio effect (NRE) and the Weber fraction (w) are common metrics of the precision of the approximate numbers sense (ANS), a cognitive mechanism suggested to play a role in the development of numerical and arithmetic skills. The task most commonly used to measure the precision of the ANS is the numerical comparison task. Multiple varia...

Background. Educational neuroscience is an emerging scientific field that seeks to translate and apply research findings from neuroscience to educational theory and practice. However, the practical potential for such collaboration has been met with mixed degrees of enthusiasm. Many researchers, both in education and neuroscience, question what, if...

Arabic digits are one of the most ubiquitous symbol sets in the world. While there have been many investigations into the neural processing of the semantic information digits represent (e.g. through numerical comparison tasks), little is known about the neural mechanisms which support the processing of digits as visual symbols. To characterise the...

In their seminal work on children’s development of number concepts, Robbie Case and his collaborators emphasized the importance of having a firm understanding of numerical quantity for children’s development of mathematical competencies. Since Case’s work on number competencies in children, work in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience ha...

The aim of this study was to identify regional structural differences in the brains of native speakers of a tonal language (Chinese) compared to nontonal (European) language speakers. Our expectation was that there would be differences in regions implicated in pitch perception and production. We therefore compared structural brain images in three g...

Numbers are everywhere in modern life. Looking out a window, one might see both symbolic numbers, like the numerals on a thermometer, and nonsymbolic quantities, such as the number of chickadees at a bird feeder. Although differences between symbolic and nonsymbolic numbers appear very salient, most research on numerical cognition has focused on si...

This chapter highlights both the promise and challenges of a developmental cognitive neuroscience approach to the study of both typical and atypical number development. It proposes how such an approach can provide insights into the ontogenesis of numerical and mathematical skills not afforded by purely behavioral methods. In order to do this, it pr...

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a specific learning disability affecting the acquisition of school-level mathematical abilities in the context of otherwise normal academic achievement, with prevalence estimates in the order of 3-6%. Behavioural studies show deficits in elementary numerical processing among individuals with pure DD, indicating tha...